Parasites Outlast Ban On Out-of-state Bees

Parasites Outlast Five-year Ban On Out-of-state Honeybees

An infestation of mites that has been killing thousands of bee colonies across Connecticut and the nation is about to claim another victim.

A five-year state ban on imported honeybees is expected to fall to the persistent parasites, which have already claimed 60 percent of the honeybee population in the western part of the state.

"It's not working," said state entomologist Louis Magnerilli, of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven. "It's just no use anymore. There is nothing we can do to get rid of the mites."

The ban was supposed to ward off the mites by outlawing the importation of bees from states where the mites have been found. But two different types of mites have been attacking the state's honeybees, which fruit and vegetable growers depend on to pollinate orchards and fields. Forty-eight Connecticut communities are known to have been affected by the parasites, officials said.

The lifting of the ban, which must be approved by the state legislature, cannot come soon enough for Austin Knox, president of the Connecticut Beekeepers Association. But Knox said he is skeptical that the ban will be lifted by the end of the year as promised.

"If we don't get this ban lifted pretty soon, there won't be enough bees to pollinate the agricultural products of Connecticut next season," said Knox, of New Milford.

Large produce growers have practically been unaffected by the ban, Knox said. In fact, he said the ban is "a joke" because there is only one state bee inspector.

"It's simply supply and demand," Knox said. Large beekeepers who supply large farms have been able to pay the prices of imported bees brought into the state illegally, he said.

"There is no way in the world that they'd be able to supervise the ban with one inspector," Knox said.

But Kettle has been successful in showing beekeepers how to control the mite population in their bee colonies. This past season, he said, he showed hundreds of beekeepers how to use a plastic strip coated in a chemical that kills mites.

Nonetheless, the problem of mites "will never go away," Kettle said. He speculated, however, that the mite population can be controlled and that bees will eventually develop an immunity to the parasites.

Small-scale farmers have been hit hardest by the five-year ban, Knox said. Those farmers depend on supplies from about 2,000 state hobbyists, some of whom have seen their bee colonies overtaken by the mites.

Small-scale peach growers were most affected this year. "Without any question, peaches this year were not as good," Knox said.

But the state's apple growers fared well without depending on bees because of the warm spring, said John Lyman Jr., owner of Lyman Orchards in Middlefield. Lyman rents about 150 beehives. Each hive can have as many as 40,000 bees.

Glastonbury fruit grower Michael Preli, of Bel Town Orchard, said his crop has not been affected by the lack of bees. His beekeeper, however, has warned that bee supplies may not be so ample for the next bloom season.

Bees are responsible for pollinating $20 billion worth of agricultural plants each year, in addition to making about $130 million worth of honey, said Roger Morse, a leading bee authority and professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.

It is estimated that there are 3.5 billion honeybee colonies -- owned by 200,000 hobbyists and 1,600 commercial beekeepers in the United States.

Consumers may already see higher prices for produce because of the low bee population, said Morse, who anticipates prices will climb for the next several years.

There are no figures on how many bee colonies have been killed by the mites, Morse said. But, he said, "it is safe to say that 99.9 percent of the bee colonies in the country have been infested."

"There are very few colonies that show resistance" to the mites, he said. Work to develop a new strain of bees resistant to the mites is being conducted. More research, however, must be done.

"We're in no position to market resistant bees," Morse said, citing the effect of government budget cuts on research. "It's a very serious problem."